Rapporteur blog

Introduction of the Presentation by Alavaro Salva Lezaun and Francisco Jose Grau Castilla

Terry Poulton’s keynote led seamlessly into the first session, which was about the use of scenario-based learning and VPs in particular in medical education. Collectively the session components had a very clear focus, providing a coherent and logical progression from theory to practice. Two presentations, respectively from Terry Poulton and Nabil Zary, provided the preliminary overview and contextualisation of the concept of VPs.

Introduction:
Prof. Pascal M. Staccini provided the audience with a definition of Serious Games at the onset of his presentation and he emphasized the synonymous terms for serious medical gaming for the audience. Prof. Staccini clearly identified the goals of his presentation and his presentation facilitators. He explained his presentation is divided into three parts. This introduction was clear and succinct.
Procedural Aspect:

Introduction:

Dr. Timo Kuusi, Director, Research and Development unit of Medical Education, University of Helsinki, Finland, provided the audience with an introduction to his presentation that included the problems associated with educating medical students. Simulated and virtual patients provide the learner the ability to overcome some of the obstacles associated with medical education (e.g. patient refusal) and gaming is another innovative resource.

Procedural:

Suzanne Hardy, Senior Advisor, Faculty of Medical Sciences Newcastle University, UK, elegantly presented her interests and passion about copyright, consent and policy tools to facilitate the sharing of teaching resources that include patients’ recordings. We do not always provide consent in teaching as we do in conducting research. We are all PIRATES! A background of educational costs in the UK was provided. The OER definition was provided as well as the publication information by Hylen, J. (2007).

The session: This session, presented initially by Iraklis, provided a description, demonstration scenarios  and hands-on experience of MorMed. MorMed is a system which tries to overcome language barriers between individuals within a thematic community, initially, communities of individuals with specific  rare diseases. Motivations were, information for such thematic communities can be hard to find, language sometimes being a barrier, and in particular specialised information is often not easy to find. Rare disease information is such a case.